''Ninth Street'' is a 1999

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

drama, written by

Kevin Willmott Kevin Willmott (born August 31, 1959) is an Academy Award Winning American film director and screenwriter, and professor of film at the University of Kansas. He is known for work focusing on black issues including writing and directing '' Nint ...

. Filmed in the United States, the movie was primarily released in English.

Plot

Set in 1968

Junction City, Kansas Junction City is a city in and the county seat of Geary County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 22,932. Fort Riley, a major U.S. Army post, is nearby. History Junction City is so named from its ...

sometimes called "Junk Town" reflect on the history of "East Ninth Street" during the 1940s when famous jazz musicians played the nightclubs. In 1968, the area has deteriorated into strip clubs and cheap bars where Vietnam War draftees from nearby Fort Riley stop and drink. People in the group include a drunk (Don Washington) who lost a leg in World War II, a taxi dispatcher ( Isaac Hayes), a saloon owner ( Queen Bey), and a crazy bag lady ( Kaycee Moore). (Nadine Griffith) who is trying to get out of the business, but is forced to work by a malicious boy friend (Byron Myrick) and the fact that she has to provide for her baby (Meagan Cordero).

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

also stars as a white preacher who likes the people in the area better than his own congregation.

Cast

* Don Washington *

* Nadine Griffith * Queen Bey * Byron Myrick * Isaac Hayes *

* Arthur Blythe * Kaycee Moore

Production

Production on ''Ninth Street'' took five to ten years to complete. Wilmott began writing the script as a class assignment for film school; he drew upon stories his parents and their friends told him about Ninth Street in Junction City, Kansas and wrote the script as a stage play. Wilmott had initially approached several venues in Hollywood to make the film but was turned away. He ended up making the film in Kansas City, Kansas after returning to the city and achieving some success there. Isaac Hayes and Martin Sheen were confirmed as performing in the film; ''Ninth Street'' also marked the last film role of Kaycee Moore.

Release

''Ninth Street'' premiered on June 5, 1998 at the Gem Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. The film was given a screening at the Beach Museum of Art in 2005 as part of Kansas State University's Fusion Week: A Prairie View.

Reception

Variety reviewed the film, calling it "an earnest effort that's compromised by inexperienced direction and nonexistent production values."

Thomas Fox Averill Thomas Fox Averill (born April 30, 1949) is a writer, novelist, and academic from Topeka, Kansas. His works, including ''Secrets of the Tsil Cafe'', ''The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson'', ''Ordinary Genius'', and, more recently ''Rode'', have won w ...

covered ''Ninth Street'' for the Center of Kansas Studies at

Washburn University Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,100 ...

, noting that it "resonates with the transitions faced by many Kansas communities. " In an interview with Wilmott, Jeff Loeb stated that "Through the film Willmott advocates a return to a sense of selfhelp and mutual dependency necessary to the salvation of the black community, a somewhat more conservative message than is normally seen in contemporary African American films. " The reviewer for ''Video Business'' rated the movie favorably, citing it as a "richly textured recreation of Junction City in the late '60s".

References

External links

* 1999 films 1999 drama films Films based on American novels American drama films American black-and-white films Films directed by Kevin Willmott 1990s English-language films 1990s American films {{1990s-drama-film-stub